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PubMed2000

Iconic hand gestures and the predictability of words in context in spontaneous speech.

This study presents a series of empirical investigations to test a theory of speech production proposed by Butterworth and Hadar (1989; revised in Hadar & Butterworth, 1997) that iconic gestures have a functional role in lexical retrieval in spontaneous speech. Analysis 1 demonstrated that words which were totally unpredictable (as measured by the Shannon guessing technique) were more likely to occur after pauses than after fluent speech, in line with earlier findings. Analysis 2 demonstrated that iconic gestures were associated with words of lower transitional probability than words not associated with gesture, even when grammatical category was controlled. This therefore provided new supporting evidence for Butterworth and Hadar's claims that gestures' lexical affiliates are indeed unpredictable lexical items. However, Analysis 3 found that iconic gestures were not occasioned by lexical accessing difficulties because although gestures tended to occur with words of significantly lower transitional probability, these lower transitional probability words tended to be uttered quite fluently. Overall, therefore, this study provided little evidence for Butterworth and Hadar's theoretical claim that the main function of the iconic hand gestures that accompany spontaneous speech is to assist in the process of lexical access. Instead, such gestures are reconceptualized in terms of communicative function.

Gestures↗

PubMed1988

Praxis and gesture comprehension in 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds.

This investigation examined (a) whether the ability to comprehend pantomimed gestures improves with age in young children and whether the ability to point to the actual object precedes the ability to point to a functional associate and (b) whether there is a difference in the ability to comprehend pantomimed gestures between learning-disabled and normal subjects. The Gesture Comprehension Test, the Imitation of Postures test, and the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language were administered to 68 normal children and 24 learning-disabled children 4 to 6 years of age. Results indicated that gesture comprehension improved with age and that the ability to point to the actual object preceded the ability to point to its functional associate. Boys performed significantly better than girls. There was no significant difference between normal and learning-disabled subjects' ability to comprehend gestures. A moderate correlation was found between the Gesture Comprehension Test and the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language; a low correlation was found between the Gesture Comprehension Test and the Imitation of Postures test. These results suggest the possibility that in preschool children and young school-age children, gesture comprehension may be more closely related to language than to nonsymbolic aspects of praxis.

Aging↗

PubMed1988

Symbolic gesturing in normal infants.

2 studies are presented that document the spontaneous development by normal infants of nonverbal gestures to symbolically represent objects, needs, states, and qualities. These symbolic gestures are shown to be a typical rather than rare phenomenon of early development and to function in ways similar to early verbal symbols. Indeed, the case is made that these gestures and early words are both representative of common underlying mechanisms, in particular, the recognition that things have names. In the first study, mothers of 38 17-month-old infants were interviewed in regard to their infants' verbal and nonverbal development. The second study, designed to document with greater precision the findings of the interview study, is a longitudinal study of 16 infants who were followed from 11 to 24 months. Both studies provide evidence that symbolic gestures tend to develop in tandem with the child's early words, that girls tend to rely more heavily than boys on such gestures, that structured parent-child interactions are important to the development of these gestures, that the gestures tend to depict the function rather than the form of objects, and that the use of gestural labels is positively related to verbal vocabulary development. Implications of these findings for theories of language development and for speech pathology are discussed.

Child Development↗

PubMed1984

Gestural communication in deaf children: the effects and noneffects of parental input on early language development.

We previously reported that deaf children of hearing parents can develop a gestural communication system with some of the observed properties of early child language. In the present study, this phenomenon of gesture creation was replicated in four deaf children aged 1-4 to 3-1 at the time of the first interview. Each child, despite his atypical language-learning conditions (in particular his lack of usable conventional linguistic input, either oral or manual), developed a gesture system comparable in semantic content and structure (specifically, constructional ordering of elements, differential probabilities of production of elements, and recursive concatenation of semantic relations) to the gestural systems of the six deaf children of hearing parents in our original study and comparable as well to the spoken and sign systems of children acquiring conventional languages under typical learning conditions. This phenomenon suggests that the human child has strong biases to communicate in language-like ways. Nevertheless, it is possible that the deaf child's hearing parents, and not the child himself, were responsible for the emergence of the child's structured (yet idiosyncratic) gesture system. To investigate this possibility, we considered three possible parental influences on the child's sentence structures. First, we entertained the hypothesis that the children's sign sentences were merely imitations (perhaps even uncomprehending imitations) of a hearing adult's immediately preceding gestures. Second, we considered the possibility that the regularities underlying the deaf children's structured sign sentences were induced from their hearing parents' gestures taken in toto. Finally, we considered the possibility that the deaf children's sign sentences had been shaped by their parents' responses to those sentences. We found no evidence to support any of these hypotheses. The data reported in this series of studies confirm that deaf children lacking a conventional linguistic input can develop a gestural communication system that shows some of the structural regularities characteristic of early child language. The results suggest that communication with a number of language-like properties can develop in a markedly atypical language-learning environment, even without a tutor's modeling or shaping the structural aspects of the communication. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that the deaf child himself plays a seminal role in the emergence of the structural aspects of these communication systems.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1998

Knowledge conveyed in gesture is not tied to the hands.

Children frequently gesture when they explain what they know, and their gestures sometimes convey different information than their speech does. In this study, we investigate whether children's gestures convey knowledge that the children themselves can recognize in another context. We asked fourth-grade children to explain their solutions to a set of math problems and identified the solution procedures each child conveyed only in gesture (and not in speech) during the explanations. We then examined whether those procedures could be accessed by the same child on a rating task that did not involve gesture at all. Children rated solutions derived from procedures they conveyed uniquely in gesture higher than solutions derived from procedures they did not convey at all. Thus, gesture is indeed a vehicle through which children express their knowledge. The knowledge children express uniquely in gesture is accessible on other tasks, and in this sense, is not tied to the hands.

Child↗

PubMed1993

The emergence of mature gestural patterns is not uniform: evidence from an acoustic study.

Previous studies investigating the organization of articulatory gestures present conflicting accounts of age-related differences in the execution of the articulatory gestures themselves and in the organization of those gestures. Several methodological differences may help to explain these contradictions: First, different studies have used different measures, all of which reflect vocal-tract activity to varying extents; second, the articulatory gestures being analyzed differed across studies; third, the phonetic composition of syllables has varied; and finally, utterance length, and therefore complexity, has varied across studies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility that the reason these methodological differences have led to contradictory results is because the emergence of mature gestural patterns in children's speech is not uniform. To accomplish this goal, detailed acoustic analyses were performed on schwa-stop-vowel utterances from adults and from children (3, 5, and 7 years of age). Temporal measures showed that some acoustic segments were longer in children's than in adults' samples, whereas others were similar in duration. Formant frequencies indicated that vocal-tract opening and closing achieve adult-like patterns of movement by the age of 3 years, but children's tongue gestures are constrained by phonetic context more than those of adults until at least the age of 7 years. Taken together, these results suggest that the pace of development for learning to produce and to coordinate articulatory gestures is not uniform. Thus, the contradictions in findings among earlier studies may very well reflect differences in choices of measurement and utterances to be analyzed, both of which may lead to evaluations of different aspects of gestural patterning.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Gestural communication in subadult bonobos (Pan paniscus): repertoire and use.

This article aims to provide an inventory of the communicative gestures used by bonobos (Pan paniscus), based on observations of subadult bonobos and descriptions of gestural signals and similar behaviors in wild and captive bonobo groups. In addition, we focus on the underlying processes of social cognition, including learning mechanisms and flexibility of gesture use (such as adjustment to the attentional state of the recipient). The subjects were seven bonobos, aged 1-8 years, living in two different groups in captivity. Twenty distinct gestures (one auditory, eight tactile, and 11 visual) were recorded. We found individual differences and similar degrees of concordance of the gestural repertoires between and within groups, which provide evidence that ontogenetic ritualization is the main learning process involved. There is suggestive evidence, however, that some form of social learning may be responsible for the acquisition of special gestures. Overall, the present study establishes that the gestural repertoire of bonobos can be characterized as flexible and adapted to various communicative circumstances, including the attentional state of the recipient. Differences from and similarities to the other African ape species are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1984

Form and function in early communication: language and pointing gestures.

Pointing gestures of verbally advanced 2-year-olds were contrasted with those of less advanced peers, in order to examine the relationships of gesture to language during the acquisition of each. Hypotheses regarding the replacement of gestural functions by speech as verbal skills improve, regarding developmental correspondences between the two communicative domains, and regarding the independence of language acquisition from nonverbal developments were drawn from evolutionary, structuralist, and nativist viewpoints, respectively. Both formal and functional aspects of each communicative skill were measured, and were shown to be largely unrelated, particularly in the gestural domain. No evidence that language replaced gesture for communication in ontogeny was obtained. Correspondences between gesture and language occurred only between functional aspects of each, and the independence of developing language from gestural advances was suggested by the findings.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1990

Enhancement of naming in nonfluent aphasia through gesture.

In a number of studies that have examined the gestural disturbance in aphasia and the utility of gestural interventions in aphasia therapy, a variable degree of facilitation of verbalization during gestural activity has been reported. The present study examined the effect of different unilateral gestural movements on simultaneous oral-verbal expression, specifically naming to confrontation. It was hypothesized that activation of the phylogenetically older proximal motor system of the hemiplegic right arm in the execution of a communicative but nonrepresentational pointing gesture would have a facilitatory effect on naming ability. Twenty-four aphasic patients, representing five aphasic subtypes, including Broca's, Transcortical Motor, Anomic, Global, and Wernicke's aphasics were assessed under three gesture/naming conditions. The findings indicated that gestures produced through activation of the proximal (shoulder) musculature of the right paralytic limb differentially facilitated naming performance in the nonfluent subgroup, but not in the Wernicke's aphasics. These findings may be explained on the view that functional activation of the archaic proximal motor system of the hemiplegic limb, in the execution of a communicative gesture, permits access to preliminary stages in the formative process of the anterior action microgeny, which ultimately emerges in vocal articulation.

Aged↗

PubMed1992

Dissociation between linguistic and nonlinguistic gestural systems: a case for compositionality.

This paper addresses the issue of the separability of disorders of sign language from disorders of gesture and pantomime. The study of a left-lesioned deaf signer presents one of the most striking examples to date of the cleavage between linguistic signs and manual pantomime. The left-hemisphere lesion produced a marked sign language aphasia disrupting both the production and the comprehension of sign language. However, in sharp contrast to the breakdown of sign language, the ability to communicate in nonlinguistic gesture was remarkably spared. This case has important implications for our understanding of the neural mediation of language and gesture. We argue that the differences observed in the fractionation of linguistic versus nonlinguistic gesture reflect differing degrees of compositionality of systems underlying language and gesture. The compositionality hypothesis receives support for the existence of phonemic paraphasias in sign language production, illustrating structural dissolution which is absent in the production of pantomimic gesture. Understanding the neural encoding of compositional motoric systems may lead to a principled anatomical account of the neural separability of language and gesture. This case provides a powerful indication of the left hemisphere's specialization for language-specific functions.

Aphasia↗

PubMed2006

An intentional stance modulates the integration of gesture and speech during comprehension.

The present study investigates whether knowledge about the intentional relationship between gesture and speech influences controlled processes when integrating the two modalities at comprehension. Thirty-five adults watched short videos of gesture and speech that conveyed semantically congruous and incongruous information. In half of the videos, participants were told that the two modalities were intentionally coupled (i.e., produced by the same communicator), and in the other half, they were told that the two modalities were not intentionally coupled (i.e., produced by different communicators). When participants knew that the same communicator produced the speech and gesture, there was a larger bi-lateral frontal and central N400 effect to words that were semantically incongruous versus congruous with gesture. However, when participants knew that different communicators produced the speech and gesture--that is, when gesture and speech were not intentionally meant to go together--the N400 effect was present only in right-hemisphere frontal regions. The results demonstrate that pragmatic knowledge about the intentional relationship between gesture and speech modulates controlled neural processes during the integration of the two modalities.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Gesture is at the cutting edge of early language development.

Children who produce one word at a time often use gesture to supplement their speech, turning a single word into an utterance that conveys a sentence-like meaning ('eat'+point at cookie). Interestingly, the age at which children first produce supplementary gesture-speech combinations of this sort reliably predicts the age at which they first produce two-word utterances. Gesture thus serves as a signal that a child will soon be ready to begin producing multi-word sentences. The question is what happens next. Gesture could continue to expand a child's communicative repertoire over development, combining with words to convey increasingly complex ideas. Alternatively, after serving as an opening wedge into language, gesture could cease its role as a forerunner of linguistic change. We addressed this question in a sample of 40 typically developing children, each observed at 14, 18, and 22 months. The number of supplementary gesture-speech combinations the children produced increased significantly from 14 to 22 months. More importantly, the types of supplementary combinations the children produced changed over time and presaged changes in their speech. Children produced three distinct constructions across the two modalities several months before these same constructions appeared entirely within speech. Gesture thus continues to be at the cutting edge of early language development, providing stepping-stones to increasingly complex linguistic constructions.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed2006

Differential cerebral activation during observation of expressive gestures and motor acts.

We compared brain activation involved in the observation of isolated right hand movements (e.g. twisting a lid), body-referred movements (e.g. brushing teeth) and expressive gestures (e.g. threatening) in 20 healthy subjects by using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Perception-related areas in the occipital and inferior temporal lobe but also the mirror neuron system in the lateral frontal (ventral premotor cortex and BA 44) and superior parietal lobe were active during all three conditions. Observation of body-referred compared to common hand actions induced increased activity in the bilateral posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS), the left temporo-parietal lobe and left BA 45. Expressive gestures involved additional areas related to social perception (bilateral STS, temporal poles, medial prefrontal lobe), emotional processing (bilateral amygdala, bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), speech and language processing (Broca's and Wernicke's areas) and the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA). In comparison to body-referred actions, expressive gestures evoked additional activity only in the left VLPFC (BA 47). The valence-ratings for expressive gestures correlated significantly with activation intensity in the VLPFC during expressive gesture observation. Valence-ratings for negative expressive gestures correlated with right STS-activity. Our data suggest that both, the VLPFC and the STS are coding for differential emotional valence during the observation of expressive gestures.

Adult↗

PubMed2002

Performance of gesture in children with and without DCD: effects of sensory input modalities.

This study aimed to investigate the extent to which gesture performance depends on input modality and whether gestural development patterns differ in children with and without developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Therefore, development of limb gesture was studied in 140 children--105 control children (94 males, 11 females) and in 35 children with DCD (29 males, six females) divided into three age bands: 5 to 6 years, 7 to 8 years, and 9 to 10 years. Transitive gestural skills were investigated through four input modalities: Imitation, Visual plus Tactile, Visual, and Verbal. Results indicate that limb gestural skills in normally developing children follow a progressive maturation pattern: Imitation, Visual plus Tactile, and visual routes appear to mature before the verbal route and appear to be available earlier to enable the child to perform a correct gesture. The performance of children with DCD throughout the four modalities suggested a general maturational delay. When gestures were required through the Verbal modality, there was a specific deficit in using sensory-motor information and in integrating it into a motor representation. In the Verbal modality, children with DCD performed consistently worse than their control peers and the difference in performance tended to increase rather than improve with age.

Age Factors↗

PubMed2004

Characterizing changes in parent labelling and gesturing and their relation to early communicative development.

In a longitudinal study, 17 parent-child dyads were observed during free-play when the children were 1;0, 1;6, and 2;0. Parents' labelling input in the verbal and gestural modalities was coded at each session, and parents completed a vocabulary checklist for their children at each visit. We analysed how the frequency of labelling in the verbal and gestural modalities changed across observation points and how changes in parental input related to children's vocabulary development. As a group, parents' verbal labelling remained constant across sessions, but gestural labelling declined at 2;0. However, there are notable individual differences in parental trajectories in both modalities. Parents whose verbal labelling frequency increased over time had children whose vocabulary grew more slowly than those whose labelling frequency decreased, remained constant, or peaked at 1;6. There were few systematic relations between patterns of parental gesturing and children's vocabulary development. Parents' verbal and gestural labelling patterns also appeared dissociable. However, parents' words and gestures were correlated when their children were 1;6, suggesting that gestures serve an important bootstrapping function at a critical point in children's vocabulary development.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed1997

What's communication got to do with it? Gesture in children blind from birth.

It is widely accepted that gesture can serve a communicative function. The purpose of this study was to explore gesture use in congenitally blind individuals who have never seen gesture and have no experience with its communicative function. Four children blind from birth were tested in 3 discourse situations (narrative, reasoning, and spatial directions) and compared with groups of sighted and blindfolded sighted children. Blind children produced gestures, although not in all of the contexts in which sighted children gestured, and the gestures they produced resembled those of sighted children in both form and content. Results suggest that gesture may serve a function for the speaker that is independent of its impact on the listener.

Blindness↗

PubMed1991

Do conversational hand gestures communicate?

In 5 experiments, male and female undergraduates viewed gestures and tried to select the words that originally accompanied them; read interpretations of gestures' meanings and tried to select the words that originally had accompanied them; tried to recognize gestures they previously had seen, presented either with or without the accompanying speech; and assigned gestures and the accompanying speech to semantic categories. On all 4 tasks, performance was better than chance but markedly inferior to performance when words were used as stimuli. Judgments of a gesture's semantic category were determined principally by the accompanying speech rather than gestural form. It is concluded that although gestures can convey some information, they are not richly informative, and the information they convey is largely redundant with speech.

Adult↗

PubMed2004